Howard Moon
Howard Tommy Jerry Moon (Julian Barratt) is best friend of Vince Noir, despite being very different characters. Howard is unlucky, uncharming and a fairly private man who prides himself on having his own "style" and way of doing things, instead of being someone (like Vince) who follows the crowd. His middle initials TJ stand for Tommy Jerry (Tommy after Thomas Edison and Jerry after Jerry the mouse). Biography Howard Moon had a fairly uneventful childhood until he met Vince Noir at school, where they became close friends. At one stage, Howard insists that himself and Vince are the same age, whereas in a later episode, he also states that he is ten years older than Vince. Once when it was his birthday Vince realized no one was going to come to his party and it was going to be embarrasing so he told people there was going to be a bouncy castle which made people come but then they beat up Howard when they realized there wasn't one really. It is also mentioned that Howard played the genie in a school play of Aladdin but he got stage fright and froze which caused the headmaster to get him in a headlock. Howard and Vince went on to work as zookeepers at the Zooniverse before moving to live in a flat above Naboo's shop, Nabootique to work as shopkeepers. They also have formed a band together and invented the genre crimping. Howard worked as a bin man twice, once before he worked at the Zooniverse and once in "the Strange Tale of the Crack Fox" episode. Eventually Howard conquered his stage fright and became an actor like he had always dreamed of but he quit soon after to go back to the shop so he could work with Vince again. One of the few things Howard did as an actor was playing the part of trapped wind in an advert which he was later embarrassed about. Characteristics Howard is very open and proud about being "a simple man" who doesn't follow crowds, fads or fashions, and instead has his own style of colourful and jazzy shirts and hats. He also favours tweed and corduroy as opposed to the shiny, synthetic fabrics Vince wears. As well as loving details and having an almost obsessive need for organisation, he's famous for his love of jazz and refers to himself as "the Jazz Maverick". Most of the things he likes are considered boring or dreary by other people: holidays in the country, nature lectures, Danish avant-garde film-making, and soliloquies on death for example. Howard is an aspiring musician, actor, poet, novelist, photographer and explorer; and whilst claiming himself "the genre spanner" sometimes exhibits delusions of grandeur as he never quite manages to achieve his aspirations. In the first series he worked at the Zooniverse as a zookeeper with Vince. In the second series they left the zoo and formed a band together. In the third series they both worked for Naboo in his 'Nabootique' second-hand shop, where Howard believed he was the manager even though he was unable to sell anything. Instead he tended his stationery village and collection of elbow patches. In their adventures together it was usually Vince that found (or stumbled upon) success, while Howard performed the smaller and usually unappreciated tasks of organising everything, making the decisions, and driving the van. He's made some wild claims of past achievements (like having raised Hitler from the dead) as well as having grand hopes for the future (like featuring on the cover of 'Global Explorer Magazine'), and in the pursuit of these goals he sometimes compromises his own morals - but only temporarily. If and when Vince (or Naboo and Bollo) need him, Howard is there. His claims of being a talented multi-instrumentalist, however, are true; though the talents came from a devilish pact he made with The Spirit Of Jazz who 'gets inside him' sometimes when he plays and makes him do strange and embarassing things. Howard is sadly unlucky in most relationships. His attempts to impress the ladies with his boasting and bravado usually fail, and other men find him creepy (due to his "shifty eyes") or forgettable. He did however garner the passionate attention of both Old Gregg and Eleanor, though they both repulsed him. His best and strongest relationship is with Vince as they balance each other's characters, go on adventures together, rescue each other regularly, and when no-one else is around, they run around in their underwear throwing satsumas at each other. Romance Howard is unlucky in love and had problems talking to women. In series one Howard is in love with the reptile keeper, Mrs Gideon and attempts to impress her with his novel writing and snake capturing which is often the launching point for his and Vince's adventures. His 'cream' love poems, where he likens his love's attributes to cream, have earned him the title "Britain's leading cream poet.”. He has claimed to have "deeply Spanish" lineage; Vince usually counters that he is "clearly from Leeds". Despite his lack of success, he seems to see himself as a smooth-talker and while he thinks he is being cool and dashing, his attempts to smooth talk women are awkward at best To impress two Electro girls, he talks of animals in heat and in series two, to impress Precious Lilywhite, he speaks about jazz and plays a tune on his self-made flute. In series two, he does manage to earn the love of an hermaphrodite merman, Old Gregg. Old Gregg even proposes marriage to Howard, who acquiesces due to Old Gregg's promise to let him out of the cave he is being held captive in. Whilst Old Gregg is in possession of an organ dubbed a 'mangina'. In the live tour,Howard indicates he has a 'shenis' and relates that they were “Going to make sweet, sweet love" even though the strange sea dweller initially repulsed him. In the series three episode Party Howard's romantic troubles reach a new level of wretchedness, when it is revealed that he is actually a virgin. Later in the episode Vince and Howard share a kiss (in order to save Vince's life) leading Howard to announce that he has now discovered his own homosexuality and is in love with Vince. Vince is terrified, but he becomes jealous moments later when Howard begins flirting with a girl. In a deleted scene it is revealed that this woman he flirted with was actually Old Gregg in disguise and Old Gregg still repulsed him at this point, but Howard failed to find this out and invited "her" to have sex with him. Phases Howard often goes through phases of aspiring to get a very respected profession, such as a musician, poet, novelist and photographer although he usually fails; partly because of the lack of support from Vince who often ruins Howard's chances of becoming respected by a member of each profession. The one interest that has remained, however, is his love for jazz. Likes: * Jazz * Stationery Management * Jazz * Music * Jazz and gospel Dislikes: * Being mistaken for Vince's dad or a geography teacher * Un-orderly things * Electro music Trivia *Howard claimed that Walt Disney once offered him a job sorting Disney's pens (though at the end of the show this claim seemed to be true). *Howard is bad at taking criticism, and when anyone gives him any (regardless of if it's constructive or not) he will react very violently (he throws pots, pans, and anything he can get his hands on at the person who criticized him). *Howard’s favourite music style is jazz-fusion, and he spends part of each day in a “jazz trance”. *Vince claims that the council does Howard’s hair; though he later admits to doing it himself while Howard is asleep. *As a child he was beaten up at his own birthday party for not having a bouncy castle (after Vince lied about one to get people to come). *During one Boosh gig he scared the audience by taping a bassoon to his head like a "jazz dalek". *After being shrunk to microscopic size, Howard once pretended to be Vince's braincell so he could confront the invading jazz virus. *Howard is secretly proud of his 'tiny eyes', as he shows when facing off against the impostor Harold Boom, into whose eyes Howard claims he could fit his eyes twice with room to spare. category:major characters category:characters